This weekend we traveled to Lansing to Curt's sister's house to celebrate three birthdays with the family. The rest of the Cadillac, MI family came down too. We had a full house and had lots of fun together! Ben playing with his cousin Peyton. They are playing with some toys that Ben brought along. Ben was excited to see Mark and Betsy's dog, Charlie, again. He loved to pet him and chase him around the house. Watching Aunt Molly getting some food ready, while Aunt Betsy holds him. Watching his cousins play a game. He really wanted to play Uno with the kids (that means he wanted to grab the cards and run off with them :) ). His Grandma Walker let him sit by her and help with her cards. He did a pretty good job not messing up the cards for everyone. The three March birthdays...Betsy (my sis-in-law), Tim (my brother-in-law), and Abby (my niece). This little guy did not sleep very well while we were there. He would NOT go to bed at night and we struggled with it for several ...

We took a little trip to the mall this morning. It was nice to get out of the house a little bit. I'm ready for the warmer temps to come and STAY! :) When we passed by the Easter bunny, the worker asked if Ben wanted some bunny ears. I said, "Sure." I didn't really think that Ben would keep them on his head, but he wore them all over the mall. Several older "mall walkers" stopped by him to tell him he looked so cute in his bunny ears. The play area only had a couple kids in it, so we made a quick stop for Ben to play. Crawling through one of the tunnels. He had so much fun playing! Before we left, I took us by the fountain. Ben loves to watch the water and look at the penguins on the top.

Ben found this hat in his room and surprisingly didn't want to take it off his head. He kept walking over to the fireplace to check out his reflection. He would point and smile at himself. "Do you think this hat works with my shirt?" Time for the hat to come off.

...We do! We went out for lunch at Bar-B-Cutie today. It's one of Curt's favorite places to eat. We usually just share with Ben, but when we ordered they said that kids eat free today. So, he tried out some chicken tenders and mac & cheese. He enjoyed it and even rubbed his mac & cheese hands all over his pants. Yay!!! I love laundry. :)

Ben moved his chair over by the door today. He sat there looking out of the window. I thought he looked cute just relaxing and looking outside. I ran to get the camera and figured he would be up and moving by the time I got it out. But, he was still sitting there enjoying the sunshine. He even stayed in his seat and smiled for the camera!

Ben got some new toys today from Curt's boss Lindsay. Her son Ethan was done playing with them and passed them on to Ben. He was so excited to play with all the new things. One of the toys was a Pluto dog with a controller that makes it walk, wag his tail, etc...Ben took it for a walk around the house. If you watch the video, you will see that he is not quite ready to walk a real dog. :)

It was so beautiful out this afternoon. When Ben finally woke up from his nap (I think the park wore him out), we went for a walk and then he played in the sandbox. We just put the sand in it last night, so this was his first time using it. It took a little coaxing to get Ben to put his feet in the sand. When I first sat him down, he wasn't so sure what to do with the sand. After a few minutes, he got comfortable and started playing with the toys. He ended up playing in his sandbox for about 40 minutes. I gave him some old kitchen stuff to use because we haven't gotten him any sand toys yet.

Ben and I met some friends at the park today. He had fun walking around and playing on the toys. Finding some little twigs on the ground. Checking out a stick. He loved going on the swing. I think he could sit in there all day! He also had fun sitting on my lap on one of the big swings. Looking at the bark, leaves, and acorns on the ground.

After his nap this afternoon, I let Ben do some coloring at the table. I put out the table cloth and belted him in his booster seat...for damage control. :) Lately, Ben likes to pull the crayons out of the holders before he colors. We probably could have just stuck with regular crayons for him. :) The blue crayon is free. It's time to color. Scribbling away on his paper.

We took a walk outside today after Ben's nap. The first half of the walk the sun was behind a cloud and the wind was freezing us. The second half, the sun made us really hot. Guess we can't win with the temperature. :) Curt and I took Ben by our neighborhood playground, but the ground was really muddy. We'll have to try it again after it has had time to dry up.

After we got home from church tonight, we let Ben play in the driveway for a few minutes. He pushed around his walker. He kept heading towards the road with it. The neighbor boys were playing basketball and he wanted to go over by them. It was hard work to get him to turn around and stay in our driveway :). When we brought him inside because it was getting chilly, he was really upset. Maybe he'll have another chance to go out again tomorrow.

Ben and I took a trip to the mall this morning. He ran around in the play area for a little while. It was packed with kids! Then we went and sat by the fountain. Ben loves to watch the water. After looking in a few stores, it was time for lunch. We met Curt in the food court and had Chick-Fil-A for lunch. Ben has discovered a love for ketchup. So, he had to dip everything (even cheese...gross) into his ketchup.

For breakfast, Ben likes to eat cheerios that have been in milk. Today he decided that it would be a good idea to rub his hands in the milk and then put them in his hair. It created an awesome hairstyle. I think he might be on to something here. :) Eating some cheerios after giving his hair a few rubs with milk. Looks pretty good, don't you think? :)

When I vacuum, I usually have to carry Ben around with me the whole time because he is scared to death of it. He must be growing out of that fear because he did much better with the vacuum today. I gave him some attachments to play with and he "helped" me vacuum with them, while I used the real vacuum. He even tried to push the vacuum, which he NEVER does unless I am holding him. It is super heavy, so he didn't get very far. Running around with his attachments. Trying to vacuum the kitchen floor.

Here's our latest bowling progress. Curt thought I should take a picture of my new high score. I'm really not sure why I do well at this game...I am the WORST bowler in real life. I'm not keeping track, but Curt has only beaten me once. :)

I really wanted to take Ben outside for a while this morning (it is supposed to be 60 degrees), but it was pouring out. So, I decided to make a couple puppets for a puppet show. I found some easy templates on the internet, cut them out, and put the puppets together. I did a couple shows from behind our chair. Ben laughed and thought they were funny. Then, he wanted to try them on his arms. As soon as he had them on, he ripped them off. He would not put them on again and ran away when I tried. He wanted to just hold them with his hands. I made a cow and a giraffe. Ben loves both these animals, so I thought he would like them in a puppet show. Ben talking to the giraffe. Squishing the giraffe's face. Giving the cow a closer inspection.

Ben practiced coloring in the living room today. I put a plastic table cloth on the floor and gave him a few crayons to use. He doesn't always understand how to point the crayon to get the color on the paper, but he improves each time we get them out.

This morning we went out to Toys R Us to get a sand box for Ben. We decided on a crab that has a lid to cover it up. We also found a cute chair that was just Ben's size. He doesn't have any chairs, so now he can practice sitting down on one the right size. We brought the bottom of the crab into Ben's playroom. It's not quite nice enough to play outside all the time, so we'll just keep it inside for a little while. Ben was little nervous about getting into it at first, but once I sat him in there he liked it. Daddy helping Ben try out his new chair. I even got into the crab to play with Ben for a little while.